Ben Finn
Ben Finn is a soldier under the command of Major Swift and an ally to the Prince/Princess. Early Life Born Benjamin Finn, Ben was born in the small hamlet of Gunk, having never truly felt that Gunk nor any other place he had been had really felt like home to him. Raised by his shop-keeping parents, they often struggled to buy shoes for Ben and his brothers and put food on the table. That being the case, Ben and his brothers had to find other sources of sustanance, money and entertainment. Despite his small hands, Ben was never as good as his brothers in what constituted as the main form of income for all Finns under the age of fifteen (pickpocketing). Ben believes that this was due in part to despite being eight years old, he had begun to form a sort of moral objection to such activities. Instead, Ben earned money as a street performer, standing in the town square telling jokes and falling over repeatedly. Even though his jokes were often crude, he believed the work to be honest - or at least it would have been had his brothers not taken the opportunity brought to them by Ben's performances to rob the distracted villagers blind. Due to all his accidental aiding in their gain in wealth, on his eleventh birthday his brothers bought him a beautiful pellet gun, which he saw as the greatest gift he had ever received. It was with that pellet gun that Ben discovered his second talent: a rather surprising accuracy with firearms. It was not long after he discovered this that his talent was put to good use. His brothers would set up a fair booth in which they challenged all comers to pit their target practice skills against his. After fleecing all the locals, they soon had to rely on traders, passersbys and the occasional tours of neighbouring villagers, out of which more often than not they would have been run out by the authorities.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JBzqobd1d8 While his accomplices spent or gambled most of their earnings, Ben saved every gold coin he could so that he could one day fulfil his burning desire to explore Albion and become a great adventurer like the ones he read about in two-penny pamphlets and third-hand story books. More than anything, he wanted to meet heroes, even though he knew that their hayday had long since passed and that the aging ruler of the kingdom was the last. It was the death of this hero when he was fifteen that marked the beginning of a series of tragedies that were to befall his family. His oldest brother, Jason, was killed in a duel with an irate farmer that so happened to be the husband of Jason's last sexual conquest. The duel was fought with pitchforks, and since Jason had never done an honest days' work in his life, he made the fatal mistake of holding his pitchfork the wrong way. Shortly after Jason died, Ben's second oldest brother William was arrested for trying to run a con game by the wrong person (a passing plain clothes town guard). William was taken to Bowerstone and was never heard from again. Ben's third brother, Quentin, contrived to accumulate enough gambling debts to have a price put on his head. Ben remembers Quentin's death most clearly since he was unfortunate enough to witness it. When the assassins and bounty hunters came in to collect on his suddenly valuable head, Ben did what he could to protect him, but no matter how accurate his shots were from his rifle, it didn't change the fact that he was shooting peas instead of bullets (as he had not been able to afford a real rifle at the time). It was no surprise to him when his mother died next, grief stricken by the loss of her three sons. Ben's mother left his father a drunken widower (though drunk only when he could afford it, poverty making his attempts to drown his sorrows harder). Even though Ben did what he could to help out in his father's shop, employing all his wit and charm to become a highly persuasive salesman, it was obvious that there wasn't much of a market for novelty toothbrushes in such a small village (especially one that made such an effort to avoid any form of oral hygiene). Soon enough, Ben's father passed away (far more sober than he would have liked). It was then Ben resolved to leave Gunk for good, and to seek his fortune and adventures in the kingdom of Albion.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b67a09rtR8M What little gold he had saved in his youth now gone (having to spend it all on the quick succession of funerals and having to pay off his brother's gambling and business debts), it was then he left his so called home as penniless as he had entered it seventeen years ago. Unable to pursue his dream as an explorer, he found himself gravitating towards the main cities and doing a variety of jobs. He stacked books at the Brightwall Library, absorbing as much knowledge as he could about the world from them, served drinks at the Cow and Corset in Bowerstone (after he established that his comedy routine would bring him nowhere among the more sophisticated urban crowd) and eventually managed to put his shooting skills to proper work as he became a bodyguard who protected traders as they travelled from town to town. Finally having a real rifle in his possession and using it against bandits, hobbes and other enemies the trading caravans attracted, the actions felt as natural as breathing to him. The wages he was earning were so superior to those he previously earned, he soon had enough gold to make his dream come true. After obtaining the supplies he would need, Ben set out to experience the adventures he'd read about since he was young, exploring every corner of Albion as he did so.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVWd9W9t65g During the next few years, Ben hunted hidden treasures and set out on dangerous quests in the same manner that the Heroes of legend once did. In short time, he exhausted almost every legitimate means by which any young man could experence life at its fullest. It may have been this exhaustion coupled no doubt in his mind that he never could quite shake off his involvement (intentional or otherwise) with criminal activity, which in the end led to him running with a band of smugglers that were operating out of the Bowerstone port. After a few weeks, it was inevitible that Ben would end up in Bloodstone, where he found an until then hidden appitite for the pleasures that only the lowest of socities could provide. Ben is embarrased to recall the days he spent drinking, gambling, and indulging in other unsavory pastimes, but is embarrased further to recall the succession of women that he fell in love with (describing them as strong minded and strong thighed). The only excuse Ben has for this is that it was in his blood, and while he had not followed his brother's examples while they lived, he celebrated their memories by following them at that point in time.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdPSBzQDHPk One balmy night, Ben boarded a motly crewed frigate while heavily drunk. Hardly pleased by the company and the profession he was forced to embrace, he looked forward to the chance to see the world that was beyond Albion (although the plundering nature of the voyage spoiled any tourism he would have otherwise enjoyed in the foreign lands they visited). Ben's impersinations of such exoctic locations was inextricably tied in with the images of the locals waving sharp implements in a threatening manner as the ship he was on set sail for the horizon. The next time they docked in Bowerstone with the intention of selling their wares to the black market, Ben took the chance to leave that chapter of his life behind him, with very little regrets (but quite a few cuts, bruises and monkey bites). It was there that he met a man who was to change his life for the better, and offer him a career that would give him what he longed for the most: a sense of belonging, a new family and a lawfuly gained wage. It was then that Ben was about to join the Albion royal army.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBjQ3aF05qQ Fable III Ben makes his first appearance in Mourningwood. He has a very strong connection with Major Swift, much like a father figure. When Swift is executed by Logan, he tells the Hero that Swift taught him almost everything he knows about being a soldier. He also seems to have a romantic interest in Page. He, along with the Prince/Princess and Sir Walter, are shipwrecked in Aurora. Fortunately he was found by Kalin and taken to Aurora City. There using his wit and charm, he asked Kalin to send a search party to look for the player and Sir Walter. After the Prince/Princess gets overwhelmed by The Crawler's darkness, he later finds the player along with the nearly dead Sir Walter. Kalin then takes the Prince/Princess back to Aurora. After both recover he joins them on they way to the assualt on Bowerstone Castle. After the Revolution, when Logan is put on trial, Ben wishes for him to be executed for the way Swift was murdered. After the final battle against the Crawler, he will join Walter's funeral service and afterwords he leaves, saying that the life of being a General wasn't for him and that he will return to adventuring. Notes *Ben Finn's sword model looks exactly like the Wreckager, the legendary cutlass wielded by Captain Dread, but whether it is or not is unknown. His rifle model is that of a Master Flintlock Rifle. *He is voiced by Simon Pegg. *Simon Pegg described him as a "man who wants to do the right thing but is constantly sucked back into criminality". *He's very skilled in ranged combat, and almost exclusively uses his gun during fights. *As a major NPC, he cannot be married. People keep asking, and yes, it is a shame. *A portrait furniture piece of Ben Finn can be won from the Mourningwood Fort mortar mini-game if you score higher than 2000 points, after getting the legendary weapon award. *On his wanted poster, he is labeled as a coward and a traitor, and is wanted for treason. *Ben is a Captain in the Albion royal army. *Ben also has a story about hitting three hollow men with one shot. This is likely a reference to the Fable II achievement "The Dark Knight", where the Hero must shoot accomplish the same thing. Category:Characters Category:Albion Military Category:Fable III Characters